A persistent,
if often unspoken, belief in the developer community is that
Android
users are simply unwilling to spend money, the implication being
that they are simply less wealthy than their iOS
counterparts.

But are they really?

According to
comScore, the answer is yes: a significantly higher
proportion of U.S. iOS users have a household income over
$100,000 — 41 percent, versus 24 percent of Android users.

But, given Android's larger installed base, the gap may not be as
significant as it initially appears.

Using the latest
comScore market share figures for smartphone operating
systems, we can estimate there are some 68 million Android users
in the U.S., meaning 16 million belong to households with incomes
over $100,000, compared to 20 million iOS users in that bracket.

A four million-person gap indicates that iOS users on the whole
might be a bit richer, but it's hardly evidence that Android
users lack real spending power.

Instead, Android's monetization gap with iOS is likely being
driven by flaws in the Android ecosystem itself, such as its
fragmentation problem and the lack of a truly seamless
payment system.

At last check, developers with both iOS and Android
apps pulled in four
times more revenue on their iOS
properties.